Coaxial cable connectors are commonly used to terminate coaxial cables and provide an electrical connection to a mating coaxial cable connector. The male coaxial connector includes a metallic housing having a cylindrical sleeve. Centrally disposed within the sleeve is a center contact pin. The center contact pin is maintained in coaxial alignment within the sleeve by means of an optimized dielectric.
Past coaxial connector designs have been complex and have utilized costly manufacturing procedures. The individual parts may be machined or die cast. The assembly often has required several hand assembly steps to form the final connector. Therefore, a need exists to provide an inexpensive yet high performance coaxial connector that requires minimal assembly steps.
Furthermore, the geometry of the pin, spacer and sleeve are mutually selected for the coaxial connector to have a prescribed radio frequency (RF) performance. Past connector designs have an electrical performance of 4 GHz or less at 50 ohms characteristic impedance and 2 GHz or less at 75 ohms characteristic impedance, while a need exists to provide enhanced electrical performance greater than or equal to 4 GHz.
In the prior art, many coaxial connector designs have been proposed, but all fail to provide a simple construction having a small number of components. These multi-component connectors are complex to produce. Additionally, these past connectors have failed to provide enhanced electrical performance characteristics.
Therefore, there is an unmet need to provide a coaxial connector that is inexpensive and provides enhanced electrical performance, and that is formed by a simple manufacturing process.